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Fashion: London comes of age

Lurid leather, time travel and the trouser boot - it's adult, feisty, and very, very Brit. Tamsin Blanchard calls it Adult Frock

ART MARKET: READY TO WEAR

If you're after a wearable investment, a new London gallery could be your first stop.

Style: Christmas comes early

One advantage of leaving your Christmas shopping to the last minute is that you can scoop up some bargains in the pre-Christmas sales, says Tamsin Blanchard.

This is the end. The State is monitoring packed lunches ...

It's no use, I'm going to have to ask for my vote back. Sleaze and broken promises I can take - it's how we expect government to behave. But what is really hard to stomach is the toe-curling spectacle of Blair and Mandelson acting like parents of teenagers trying to notch up their cool-cred. Britain is not a country of warm beer and village greens any more - it's all about John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney, declared Mandelson last week. This must be news to 99 per cent of the population. But it puts the fuss over Cherie Blair's Balmoral trousers into perspective - she must have been wearing New-Labour-approved McQueen bumsters: no wonder the Queen Mother was frightened.

Fashion: Power cut

More and more women are seeking the services of bespoke tailors. And, increasingly, designers are looking to Savile Row for inspiration. Styling by Sophia Neophitou. Photographs by Rick Guest

I dreamt I was sewn into my crystal-sequined Las Vegal trash black satin ...

Antonio Berardi and Hussein Chalayan shone out as the main attractions of London Fashion Week.

Fashion: Why fashion will always need shock treatment

British designers continue to shock. Tamsin Blanchard, Fashion Editor, asks what's the point of London Fashion Week without the semi- nudity and dead flies.

Style: He dresses the world, but Britain won't pay the price for Hussein Chalayan

On Thursday, London Fashion Week kicks off - and all eyes will be on Swinging London once more. British fashion rules the world, and more overseas buyers than ever are expected to attend the collections. Yet last week, Hussein Chalayan, one of our hottest designer exports, was without a sponsor for his show. Tamsin Blanchard, Fashion Editor, reports

second skin

Sleek, shiny and supple, with the bonus of sexual allure, leather has been taken up by young British designers. Tristan Webber, a superb craftsman, dresses the femme fatale, while Alexander McQueen and Antonio Berardi team go-faster stripes with intricate cutting achieved by the latest technology. Styling by Sophia Neophitou. Photographs by Desmond Muckian

All stitched up

No longer just the preserve of the couture houses, embroidery has taken to the streets for summer, says Melanie Rickey

Designs on our bodies

people in fashion; Dai Rees' pieces are less accessories, more wearable sculptures. Annalisa Barbieri meets a designer with a difference

Denim - for people who have to try too hard

Forget 501s, only designer jeans will do, says Emma Cook

London has more buzz than swing

Energy, yes; creativity, in abundance - but did it live up to all the hype? Tamsin Blanchard chooses the best - and worst - of London Fashion Week.

I'm out with the in crowd

Fashion week. Two words that strike terror into my heart. Because it's not just about going to the shows and seeing what's on the catwalk. It's just as much about what people wear to watch the shows. You need a different, trendy outfit for the whole week. Preferably with different matching shoes and bag (My choice: a fleece, or a fleece? A fleece I think. My smelly trainers or my not so smelly trainers?) Then it's about being looked up and down by your peers ("for goodness sake, did you see what she was wearing? That was last year's pattern/shade/shape/heel!"). Then you are studiously ignored by people who later kiss you slavishly when they are drunk at some ghastly after-show party. And lastly, you are judged not on your intelligence, wit or ability to remember Eagle songs when drunk, but on where your bottom is seated. This is also where you realise that most of what is written about fashion is utter bollocks, because nearly everyone is still wearing black. In a little twist to showing what was on the catwalk, I thought it would be fun to let you have an insight into what those nice fashion people wear to watch the shows they report on, and ask for their words of wisdom on Fashion Week. ANNALISA BARBIERI
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Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

A meeting of global power brokers in a Hertfordshire hotel is exciting conspiracy theorists, but what are they really about?
'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system': Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console

'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system'

Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console
Plenty of Fish dating site founder pulls 'Intimate Encounters' option to ward off sleazy men

Plenty of sleaze

Dating website pulls intimate 'hook-up' section to curb harassment
Inferno author Dan Brown 'honoured' to be invited to join the Freemasons

The Freemasons’ Code

Dan Brown reveals the message that told him door to the lodge is open
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Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

Nick Buckles survived the Olympics débâcle and a £5bn bid fiasco but a profit warning finally triggered his downfall
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How to say ‘I’m a sellout’

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In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

Disillusion with a siege mentality and negative playing style made change inevitable
James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

British driver was fascinating man whose epic duel with Niki Lauda in 1976 was typical of an era of glamour and glory – but also the ever-present threat of death
Stuart Hogg: Ready to climb his own Everest

Stuart Hogg: Ready to climb his own Everest

Lions' cub, 20, joins long line of players from Scottish borders club Hawick given opportunity to make his mark at highest level
Carl Froch handed rare chance of revenge with dream rematch

Steve Bunce on Boxing

Carl Froch handed rare chance of revenge with dream rematch against Mikel Kessler
'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'

Masculinity in crisis?

'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'
Have US shock jocks gone too far?

Have US shock jocks gone too far?

An incendiary remark from Rush Limbaugh may be the beginning of the end for outspoken right-wing US broadcasters
The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey pays more income tax than big cities of the North

The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey

Elmbridge pays more income tax than big cities of the North
Heavenly Bodies

Heavenly Bodies

Michael Landy's artistic marriage made in heaven... and hell